The Ontology of Watercolour Painting from A Heideggerian Perspective: A Case Study of Nantong Clock Tower Square
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33736/ijaca.11920.2026Keywords:
Watercolour painting, Heidegger, Ontology, Phenomenology, MedialityAbstract
This paper approaches watercolour painting through a focused Heideggerian ontological framework, concentrating on the interrelated moments of material concealment, the establishment of the work, and the unconcealment of truth as articulated in The Origin of the Work of Art. These moments are treated not as an exhaustive metaphysical system, but as a structural logic through which an artwork comes into presence. Positioned at the level of medium rather than philosophy per se, the study examines how the interaction of paper, water, and pigment renders this ontological sequence experientially and medially legible within watercolour practice. Ontology is thus approached neither as a theoretical abstraction nor as a method to be applied, but as a visible and reconstructable order of pictorial events through which a work establishes itself as a site of truth.
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